The first world war saw modern weaponry used on an immense scale.
Out of this came unique technological advancements in weapons and equipment.
But also primitive designs reminiscent of earlier eras of warfare.
Let's have a look at some weapons.
Born out of the brutality of trench warfare,
the gauntlet dagger, sometimes known as the punching dagger,
was worn like a glove for close quarter combat.
A crudely made blade and a protective gauntlet made from light sheet steel
with a crossbar inside for grip formed this weapon.
While it meant the soldier couldn't hold anything else in his hand,
it could deliver a lethal impact and inspire fear in the enemy.
Another medieval style weapon was the trench raiding club.
Used by the Allied Powers and the Central Powers,
this melee weapon was a quiet way of taking out the enemy during night-time raids.
Trench clubs could be made in very crude ways,
such as attaching a metal head to or banging boot nails into an entrenching tool handle.
There are also examples of walking sticks that have trench clubs on the end.
This example, which is made from a naturally gnarled piece of wood,
weighted with lead and fitted with iron spikes,
was probably used as an officer's walking stick.
The flechette, or aerial dart.
Flechettes were a feathered, aerial dart dropped out of an aircraft on to enemy troops.
Used in the early parts of the war, they were capable of piercing a helmet
and were silent as they dropped before inflicting damage.
The periscope rifle allowed a soldier to take aim safely from the trenches
without exposing himself to the enemy.
The device, invented by Lance Corporal William Beach in May 1915
during the Gallipoli Campaign, used an upper mirror
fixed looking at the sites of the rifle, which reflected into the lower mirror,
which the soldier peered into.
The periscope rifle proved useful and was soon used in many frontline trenches.
The Leach trench catapult was used by the British Army to throw grenades at a high trajectory
into the enemy trench.
The French made "Arbalète sauterelle type A", or "grenade crossbow",
was lighter and portable and would replace the Leach catapult until they were replaced
in 1916 by the two-inch medium trench mortar and the Stokes mortar.
Let's have a look at some equipment.
Steel helmets were adopted by most combatant armies by 1916, offering much better protection from shrapnel than a cloth cap.
Experimentation with chainmail visors which attached to
the helmet to protect eyes from shrapnel were made,
but these proved to be unpopular because they limited visibility.
Along with head protection, consideration for the torso was also given.
In 1915, the British first tried out body armor, but it was not universally issued,
with enough body armor to equip only 2% of its army.
There were 3 types of armor: rigid, hard armor, metal plates sandwiched between fabric and worn as a vest,
intermediate armor, various forms of small, square plates of metal attached to a canvas support to
form a protective waistcoat,
and soft armor, layers of silk, cotton or tissue and linen scraps sandwiched in a fabric waistcoat.
The stronger the armor, the more it could stop the effects of pistol rounds
and shrapnel. But as a result, the more heavier
and cumbersome it became.
Armor was issued to specialist troops in the war by
different combatants, such as the German storm troopers and the Italian Arditi.
One hundred thousand of these fans were issued to British troops on the western front in 1916.
Made from water-proof canvas stiffened with cane, the fan was a way of clearing the German gas out
of the trenches.
Fake trees were used by both sides as observation and sniping platforms.
Under the cover of night, observation post trees would be planted in no man's land
by engineers, allowing the observer or sniper to spy on the enemy in plain sight.
Only a few of these fake trees were discovered and captured.
What weapon and piece of equipment did you find the strangest?
Leave a comment below!
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